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Kids Sue the Government Over Climate Change

Young people across the country are taking legal action to defend their right to a stable climate and healthy environment. In this activity students learn about the pioneering lawsuit Juliana v. United States, and discuss a short documentary about youth climate activists.

Backgrounder for the Teacher

Following the release of a dramatic report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in October 2018, climate-related litigation is likely to increase. The IPCC’s latest report provided strong arguments for lawyers to use in making the case that climate change poses an enormous threat to people and their fundamental rights.

“By not stepping up their climate action, governments are failing to do their duty to protect citizens,” lawyer Roda Verheyen told the European news outlet Euractiv. Verheyen added that the IPCC report not only showed the devastating impacts of warming above 1.5°C, the report “made it clear that limiting the temperature rise to 1.5°C is still possible and doable.”

At the same time, it’s important to realize that lawsuits are not only extremely expensive, they’re also time-consuming. It often takes years, sometimes decades, for a major lawsuit to make its way through the courts – and in the case of climate change, we have no time to lose.

Victories have been rare in environmental lawsuits to date. Powerful governments and fossil fuel companies have fought back with all their might. Still, legal experts say that climate wins may become more likely in the future, as the attitudes of judges change.

A pioneering lawsuit brought against the U.S. government by a group of 21 youth activists, Juliana v. United States, has been making its way slowly through the courts since 2015. The young people are suing the U.S. government for failing to adequately protect the planet from the impact of climate change. The lawsuit was originally filed against the Obama administration, which sought to have the case dismissed because it claimed the court was “simply not well-suited to balance the various interests … and burdens” of “a phenomenon that spans the globe.”

The complaint asserts that through actions that have contributed to climate change, the government has violated the youngest generation’s constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property, and failed to protect essential public trust resources. The 21 young plaintiffs claim that the government also violated the public trust doctrine, a legal concept grounded in common law that holds the government responsible for resources such as water and land for public use.

In this lesson, students will learn about the IPCC's latest report and the young people's lawsuit. Then they will watch and discuss one or more short videos featuring young people who are taking legal action to secure their right to a stable climate and healthy atmosphere.

For more information about the Juliana climate suit and for a broader exploration of climate change, see also the TM lessons:

Gathering: Climate Web

Write the word “climate” on the board. Invite students to share any associations they have with the word. Chart students’ associations around the word “climate,” then draw lines from the associations to the word, creating a word web.

When you have a good number of words on your web, and/or when energy starts to wane, ask students to take some time to look at the web, then ask them:

What do you notice about the words on the web?

Do you notice themes, differences? Does anything surprise you?

What is a definition of the word “climate”?

Elicit and explain that “climate” refers to the weather patterns of a particular region averaged out over a long period of time. “Weather” refers to the short-term conditions of the atmosphere of a particular region. Ask students:

What news came out about our climate at a global conference in Poland, Europe at the end of last year (2018)?

Elicit and explain some of the information in the first paragraph of the Backgrounder above about the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. (For more information about the conference, please visit: https://www.ipcc.ch/)

Next, provide students with a summary overview of how lawsuits have been used to fight injustice historically and point out that different climate cases are currently making their way through court systems across the globe.

Activists of all ages, as well as governments and concerned citizens, are suing the biggest polluters and national governments to prevent climate change from having the disastrous effects that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is predicting, unless we take action NOW.

Consider showing the this image to illustrate the point you’re making:

Explain that a very famous lawsuit is currently making its way through the American court system: Juliana v. U.S.

This pioneering lawsuit was brought against the U.S. government by a group of 21 youth activists back in 2015. The young people are suing the U.S. government for failing to adequately protect the planet from the impact of climate change.

The complaint asserts that through actions that have contributed to climate change, the government has violated the youngest generation’s constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property, and failed to protect essential public trust resources.

The 21 young people claim that the government also violated the public trust doctrine, a legal concept grounded in common law that holds the government responsible for resources such as water and land for public use.

Ask students:

What do you think about the idea of suing the government over its failure to protect the environment for younger generations?

Next, have students watch and discuss one or more of the videos below.

Young People Take on the Government

This short documentary, and 10 others, was created by the organization Our Children's Trust in partnership with the international human rights organization WITNESS and Montana State University’s Master’s in Science and Natural History Filmmaking. Each documentary features young people who are taking legal action to secure their right to a stable climate and healthy atmosphere.

If time allows, consider watching and discussing other videos on the same website showing young people making their argument for action. Either assign different videos to small groups to watch, then discuss and share out, or watch additional videos as a full class and discuss.

TRUST Massachusetts video

Discuss some or all of the following questions:

What are your thoughts and feelings about the video you just watched?

Was there anything in particular that stood out for you in the video?

Was there anything that surprised you?

What is the message Eshe Sherley is trying to get across?

What does she say about environmental justice? What connections does she make to other kinds of justice?

What does she say about people fighting for their rights?

What parallels does she make with the Civil Rights Movement?

As a basketball player, what does Eshe mean when she says:
"We’re treating climate change … as if we’re in the first quarter and we have all the time in the world and really we’re in the fourth quarter about to go into overtime and we need to start acting as if we’re at the end of the line, we need to start making some important decisions."

TRUST Colorado video

Discuss some or all of the following questions:

What are your thoughts and feelings about the video you just watched?

Was there anything in particular that stood out for you in the video?

Was there anything that surprised you?

What is the message Xiuhtezcatl Martinez is trying to get across?

What does he tell us about the forests and wildlife in Colorado?

How are people affected?

What does he teach us about the public trust?

What responsibility does he want the government to take as part of this public trust?

Why is this especially important for young people and the next generation?

What responsibility does he want young people to take?

Closing

Ask students to share their responses to one or both of the following questions:

What is one thing you take away from today’s lesson?

What is one thing you want to learn more about as a result of today’s lesson?

Related Lessons

Fiction exploring the possibilities of a changed and changing climate can be a powerful way to make these abstract futures more immediate for ourselves and our students.This listing of climate fiction (cli-fi) includes brief descriptions of a range of short stories and novels, along with questions for discussion. A second listing includes especially challenging visions of climate futures for teachers or students interested in reading further.